Sophia

I love America

A while back the Reader’s Digest was all about what we love about America. The issue included a contest to see who could capture in six words the heart of why we love America.

I can only remember one of the winning entries. I guess it was the one that resonated with me the most.

America: everyone I love lives here.

We have several very loved family members and friends out of the country. But truly the ones I love the most are right here with me in the walls of the home photographed above.

Although there are so many awe-inspiring things to love about my country like freedom, justice, the pursuit of happiness, the American dream, and the Grand Canyon, I am not embarrassed to say that I think I love my family even more.

Yes, I would love my country without them, but the Americans in my own household are what I truly love most about America.

What’s not to love?

Cheap Entertainment
Yep, us and our girls, we were all still partying last night.

There was none of this.

Or this.

Or this.


There was only this.

Thank you
Grandma and Grandpa Gold.

We love your music.
It’s as if you saved the collection just for us.
Because you knew we wouldn’t be able to
afford to go to Chuck E. Cheese.
Because those tokens are a whole lot more than $1.89!
This one was one of the night’s favorites.
When the girls stopped dancing and started
dressing up like mom, the party suddenly came to a close.
I have no idea why.
I thought Abigail did a great job of imitating me.
Here she is taking pictures for the blog.

Bella was really the most accurate though.
I spend all my time in my robe and baseball cap.


We can’t wait for Sunday.

Tomorrow night, I am pulling out the piano music of
“We Are The World”.
And we will move on to a new decade.
The one owned by the late Michael Jackson.

He’s an adjective.
He’s doting
Me: “C’mon girls, help me come up with adjectives for dad.”
Girls: “O.k.”
Abigail says, “Ooo ooo, I got it. Ah man, the word is on the tip of my tongue.”
Me: “What does the word describe?”
Abigail: “You know, stuffing your face with hotdogs.”
Me: “Gluttonous”
Abigail: “What does gluttonous mean?”
Me: (referring to the dictionary)
“One who eats too much.”
Abigail: “Yeah, that’s the word.”
I was thinking more along the lines of outdoorsy,
but I guess gluttonous will do.
(Thanks for all the campfires LG…
and the hotdogs)

Abigail: “Electronic – ee”


Sophia says “Happy”


Sophia says, “Sporty”
How about retired? (from coaching that is)
This man has seen enough pink soccer balls to last a lifetime.
Abigail says, “Seriously.”

Bella: “Too much cents.”
Or maybe she meant “too much sense.”
Either works.

Abigail says, “Like father, like daughter.”
(You have to understand that Bella is the chip connoisseur at our house)


Bella: “Love- ish”
Me: “You mean loving?”
Bella: “Yeah.”

Metrosexual.
(The kids all look at me in awe because I just said the word sex)
Beachy?
Sophia agrees.


Engaged.
(The kids are losing interest in my game)

Interested.
Abigail wants to prove that she isn’t losing interest.
She says that this should be
“O.k. Bella, o.k., I heard you the first time.”

Abigail says, “Freakishly weird.”
I was thinking more along the lines of
Cooperative.


He’s the leader, but that’s not an adjective.

How about trusted?

Tender.


Abigail says, “Focused.”
Accurate.


Cuddly.

Picture perfect.
This one is for Cally because she said that Conan was perfect
and I don’t want LG to be outdone.


I say sensitive.
Abigail says “Sensitive Four Eyes.”


Abigail says, “French…or not.”
“His name is French.”
She must be listening.
How many times have I said it?
“His name is LeGrand, it’s French, it means The Big.”
Or the best interpretation: “The Big and the Mighty.”


And lastly,
Completely unique, never to be duplicated, and certainly not cloned.

I love you LeGrand.
Words just don’t do justice in telling how wonderful you are as a father.
Apparently, pictures don’t do it either.
Sorry.
Next year I’ll try to be as sweet as Cally.
This year it’s just a good thing I finally finished this post after a week.
I love love love love LOVE you!
Happy Belated Father’s Day.

Introducing Caroline Grace
The song has been running through my mind for aproximately 3 hours straight.
Sweet Caroline.
Go ahead…add the duhn, duh, du…you know you want to.
Hello Grammy.

Where am I?

I’m hungry.

Still hungry.

Please mom, don’t put me on the blog.
Fine then, here’s a good one for you.

Hello Dad.

Hello Abigail.

Hello Bella.
Hello Sophia.

Hello Simba.

And hello to my favorite bad hair day ever.

How to make the Grand Canyon more grand
As you know my husband’s name is LeGrand.
Many people get confused over the name.
I tell them it’s a French name,
and the best way for them to remember it is to think of it’s meaning.
LeGrand means “The Big.”
In fact, one of my favorite nicknames that LG was given is
The Big and The Mighty.
And you can all decide for yourself if that describes my hubby.
So, what does the name definition have to do with my post?
It was pure coincidence that we visited The Grand Canyon
on LeGrand’s birthday.
In honor of LeGrand visiting The Grand Canyon,
you all should know that our girls have renamed
The Grand Canyon to LeGrand Canyon.
It’s very fitting I think.
Don’t you think LG looks just like this Native American
who claims to be The Grand Canyon?

And, to make the visit even more grand,
we made sure our rental car was a Grand Caravan.

I think the train is due for some updating
along with all the other signage at the Grand Canyon.
It shouldn’t be hard, just add the “Le” at the front.

For me, The Grand Canyon, was just another evidence of God’s majesty!
What is possibly more grand than that?
Except maybe the scriptures.

If you think of The Colorado River as Willy Wonka’s chocolate river,
it’s automatically more grand.

I thought it a grand coincidence that the Arch from the Arches National Park
showed up in clouds right over the Grand Canyon.
I think that maybe God was trying to tell us that he
approved of our name change.
If you decide to hike, make sure that you read the signs so you can get back up.

Stop at the shop and gets some Dreyer’s Grand ice-cream.

Hide from mom in the tower and make her panic for a good twenty minutes
that you may have fallen into the canyon.
That’s always grand fun.
Especially when dad is in on the game.
Doesn’t it look like they are touching a painting?

Nope just pointing out the grandness.

Put yourself into the painting.
Because you are part of God’s grand creations too.

Tease your mom and wife some more by laughing at her

as she hollers for you to step back.


Show your children that you are just as grand
as any of those overpriced toys that they want.

Camp…you gotta camp.

Find something very small to remember the grand occasion.
This is our baby owl.
Her name is Paquito.
We let dad name her for his birthday.

Sit right at the grand edge.
It’s so much fun.
Notice all the grand fossils.

And the grandest layering ever.

Can we call this a grand bee?

And, make sure you visit at the grandest times of the day.

Sunrise and sunset of course.

Take notice of the grand calves. Nothing less would be worthy.

Lean over just once and ponder the
grandness of your own mortality.
The horizon is endless and so is the land.

What’s more grand than that?

Add your own caption here. I can’t think of one.
On your drive home, take a grand minute or two to realize that the

grandness of God and his creations are really never ending.

You just have to keep looking.

Off to school
Last week marked the beginning of another school year for the Gold Family.
It is a little historic for us, as Bella, our baby, finally gets to go along with her sisters.




So, now I am left filling my days without children in tow.
I think that this Wild Thing will be o.k.

When I started getting a bit sad, I decided I needed to embrace the change.
I gave myself a treat on the first day of my new found freedom.
I went to Panera Bread and got whatever I wanted.
I sat and ate and read my book just to make sure I could still enjoy some quiet.
I sure hope the girls enjoy school as much as I enjoyed my date with myself.
I also hope that they will find and be the kind of friend that is illustrated in the following story by Susie. And, they will always remember that prayers are answered.
Bella can attest to prayers being answered herself. All summer, Bella repeatedly told us she wanted Mrs. Nitz, and we told her that any teacher would be just fine and that she wasn’t going to get to choose. It ended up that she had been assigned a teacher other than Mrs. Nitz, the one Sophia had last year. Bella was bummed out during the first week of assessments, but didn’t complain. She just kept on saying, “I really really really want Mrs. Nitz.” To our pleasant surprise, when Bella reported to her second day of school, Mrs. Nitz was waiting. Bella had been changed to her class. You should have seen that smile of an answered prayer.
WET PANTS

Come with me to a third grade classroom…..

There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It’s never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they’ll never speak to him again as long as he lives. The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and prays this prayer, ‘Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I’m dead meat.’
He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered. As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy’s lap. The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, ‘Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!’
Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy.. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else – Susie.
She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. You’ve done enough, you klutz!’
Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, ‘You did that on purpose, didn’t you?’ Susie whispers back, ‘I wet my pants once too.’

Tar jay
Where is your favorite place to shop?
The kids were so excited to receive these flashing reflectors from the Target workers at a local National Night Out dinner.
The kids thought that the Target workers were more exciting than the chief of police, a local politician, the mayor, and the head of the FBI.
Who am I to argue?
We know which employees offer a 75% off discount of the dollar spot from time to time.




Summer Fun
Here are some of the girls favorites from this summer.
Not just any Mr. Potato.
Abigail informed me, “This is a Mr. Picasso Potato.”


The Webkinz were placed for their photo shoot.

Did you know that the magnets in Little Pet Shops
allow them to scale lamps?

And perch from lamp switches?

Forts are always fun.

And when you take your walls down,
you can use them to make Rapunzel hair.

She knows she’s the envy of her sisters.

Lunch is a chore, but there’s always mac n cheese.
Like, always, like, every day.

And who doesn’t love tomato soup, grilled cheese and apple juice?
They are a winning combination.

And, when mom is blogging too much, my girls always know where to find the staples, like Fruit By The Foot. We can’t live without them. And they are only $1 a box at Big Lots. If they are out when you go, it’s just because we got there before you.